How refurbished is refurbished

[rdegler]

Newegg.com sells refurbished motherboards. They state the each manufacturer has there own standard.

I would like to build a system to just be a fserver for MIRC and do not wish to spend much money. I am thinking of a refurbished motherboard.


Does anyone recommend what manufacturer is best?

or

Do you have expericences with refurbished motherboards?

thanks
roy

 

[Boonesmi]

the refurbished boards at newegg are very rarely even true refurb boards

usually they are just customer returns, and usually they work great

 

[Buz2b]

Exactly as previously posted, most MB refurbs are just "basic" returns. Personally, I am "three for three" in the success mode from NewEgg with their refurbs. Yes, YMMV and there is always the "OOPS!", but from what I have seen, NewEgg is pretty darned good about the returns. I would spend more time and energy on other items than this. Good Luck!

 

[bambam]

I am 1 for 2 on Newegg refurbs . No more for me because the savings vs new is not enough to risk them time involved in postential troubleshooting, finding missing acessories etc , and RMA as required .

 

[dew042]

every asus board i have ever gotten from newegg have been true refurbs with a white box and nothing else.

otherwise you usually get most of the accesories from someone's return....

dew.

 

[KF]

My refurb experience -> MSI refurb

But I got a MSI Geforce4 4400 refurb ($100) from Computergeeks that seems to be working well. Only missing one game CD.

 

[AngryGames]

I've had nothing but stellar luck with newegg refurbs!

 

[Gerardjg]

All these parts in my system are new egg refurbs no problems at all

MSI K7N2 Delta ILSR
2600+ 333FSB retail
Lite On CD
Plextor CDRW
ATI Radeon 9700 pro
Maxtor 80gb 7200
Antec True 430
Xaser II Case
Mitsumi Floppy

 

[Twista]

Originally posted by: Gerardjg
All these parts in my system are new egg refurbs no problems at all

MSI K7N2 Delta ILSR
2600+ 333FSB retail
Lite On CD
Plextor CDRW
ATI Radeon 9700 pro
Maxtor 80gb 7200
Antec True 430
Xaser II Case
Mitsumi Floppy

//mines are

leadtek mobo
current asus a7v8x mobo
sapphire 8500 le

 

[Sunny129]

what particular board you want? if some people are spending as much as $100 for a refurb, you might be able to find another mobo with many of the same features for the same price brand new.

 

[IsOs]

I got a refurb MSI MS-6758 motherboard. Unfortunately the onboard gigabit network connector doesn't work. Prior to this, I got a refurb MSI MS-6501 and that one works great!

There's always a chance that you might get a problematic or non-working board.

Goodluck

 

[Budarow]

I've never order a refurb anything, but if the "right" deal came along on the "right" item...I wouldn't mind giving a refurb product a chance. I'm sure that MANY people have had GREAT success (and saved $$$) ordering refurbed products. However, for me...a item such as a motherboard is NOT an item I'd feel comfortable buying as a refurb based on MY following OBSERVATIONS (any COMPLICATED" piece of hardware may have the following "characteristics" but I've written it with a mobo in mind):

1. A mobo is the GUTS of a PC and while building a PC...it gets "touched" many times with tools, hands, hardware, etc (i.e., a mobo can be damaged in a VARIETY of ways).
2. Refurbed mobos SEEM TO USUALLY be only $20 or $30 less than a NEW mobo (now if the price of a NEW mobo verses a refurb mobo were say $75 or more...I would say that buying a refurb may be worth the risk even given the following observations).
3. Refurb mobos TEND to be missing parts, manuals, cables, etc.
4. If you get a bad refurb mobo and have to RMA it back to the company...there goes ~1/2 the money you saved in buying a refurb in the first place.
5. I can only think of 3 main reasons why someone would return a mobo to include the following: 1. The board was faulty from the factory; 2. The original person ordering the mobo messed it up somehow; and, 3. The original person ordering it "changed" their mind about the board because they found out something "bad" about the mobo OR determined that a DIFFERENT mobo would suit them better OR the person needed their money back for some reason OR the person ordering the mobo INTENDED on building a PC and later decided it wasn't worth the effort.
6. My time is way more valuable than saving just $20 or $30 AND accepting the above risks in buying a refurb mobo.

In closing...MOSTLY passive, less complicated pieces of hardware would be refurb condidates for myself.
I also want to say BEST OF LUCK to those who decide to buy refurb anything and I hope you save money and have successful PC builds

 

[AngryGames]

I would say most of the returns to newegg are one of these:

1. customer changed mind
2. customer couldnt figure out how to make it work right nad gave up, sending it back
3. customer thought there was a problem and sent it back (usually combo with #2)
4. board was actually defective

For the money, you can't go wrong most of the time. Usually the refurbs only carry neweggs 30 day warranty (might be less), but the original mfg's warranty usually still applies.

 

[KF]

A real refurb has had any faults corrected and been checked out to work as new. It it were mechanical, worn parts, out of tolerance, would be replaced. Cosmestic defects would be OK. I don't know if some of Neweggs are real refurbs, or what they are. They seem to be untested, opened returns which cannot legally be sold as new under California law, which the customer has returned without claiming they are defective. I wouldn't call that a refurb, but I guess you need some word. Then Newegg sends them out again for customers to test for them.

Additional reasons for return:
1)Newegg sent them the wrong thing.
2)Somebody told him he should have got something else instead after he ordered.
3)A new review came out where another motherboard got 2 more FPS in Quake3.


Usual reason for return: customer didn't know what he was getting into by assembling a PC on his own. Maybe he chickened out when he saw all the wires. He couldn't figure out where to put all the little plugs. Or he got all the way to installing XP, but got an error message. He had no pile of known good parts to troubleshoot with.